Vertiv Lifts Outlook as Data-Center Demand Fuels 30% Sales Jump
The power-and-cooling specialist raised its full-year adjusted EPS target to $6.30–$6.40 after first-quarter revenue hit $2.65 billion.
Vertiv Holdings (VRT), the data-center power and cooling specialist, reported first-quarter 2026 net sales of $2.65 billion, a 30% increase from $2.04 billion a year earlier, as demand for AI-driven infrastructure continued to accelerate.
The quarter marked a sharp inflection in the company's growth trajectory. Organic revenue rose 23%, with acquisitions adding 4 percentage points and favorable foreign exchange contributing another 3. Adjusted diluted earnings per share climbed 83% to $1.17, while diluted EPS more than doubled to $0.99. Adjusted operating margin expanded 430 basis points to 20.8%, reflecting operational leverage on higher volume and favorable price-cost dynamics that included tariff impacts and mitigation efforts.
The Americas segment drove the bulk of the gains, with net sales surging 53.1% to $1.81 billion on 44.3% organic growth. Adjusted operating margin in the region widened 510 basis points to 27.0%. EMEA told a different story: sales fell 20.3% to $321 million on a 29.4% organic decline, and margin compressed 290 basis points to 16.6%. Product sales grew 29.8% to $2.09 billion, while services and spares rose 31.4% to $558 million.
Deferred revenue surged to $2.46 billion at quarter-end from $1.81 billion at the close of 2025, a $647 million sequential increase that points to a robust forward order book. Operating cash flow reached $767 million and adjusted free cash flow totaled $653 million, both more than doubling from the prior-year period. Net leverage fell to roughly 0.2 times, and Vertiv received inaugural investment-grade ratings from Moody's and S&P in February.
The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance, projecting net sales of $13.5 billion to $14.0 billion on organic growth of 29% to 31%, adjusted diluted EPS of $6.30 to $6.40 — up 50% to 52% at the midpoint versus 2025 — and adjusted free cash flow of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion. For the second quarter, management guided net sales of $3.25 billion to $3.45 billion and adjusted diluted EPS of $1.37 to $1.43.
Vertiv has been assembling a broader thermal-management platform through acquisitions. The company completed its purchase of ThermoKey S.p.A., an Italian maker of heat-rejection and heat-exchange technologies, expanding its EMEA manufacturing footprint. It also acquired Strategic Thermal Labs LLC, a specialist in advanced liquid-cooling including cold-plate design, and BMarko Structures LLC, a South Carolina-based structural-fabrication provider with a 560,000-square-foot facility that brings structural manufacturing in-house for its Infrastructure Solutions business.